Approach To The DVD

I just received the dvd and really, really like it. I have a question about how to approach it. Should I sit with it and get the techniques down before I get back to shedding the pieces I'm trying to learn or should I take it bit by bit? Thanks, Matt

Dear Matt, A very pertinent question! The danger lies at the two extremes: if you dabble with the exercises and immediately go back to your pieces, there might not be any effect. But if you stay away from your pieces for a long time and really develop a totally different feel in your hand in relation to the keyboard, you may lose your connection to the music you eventually will want to play (after all, interpreting music is the point, isn't it?). Feldenkrais said, "The main difficulty lies not with acquiring the new habit but in having it supercede the old habit which is firmly wired into your brain." This would seem to recommend the latter course, a really intensive sensory "bath" in the new feeling and ways of locomoting in your hand before returning to playing. In this way you minimize the tendency to 'infect' the new with the old. However, integration must occur at some point, and I see no harm in, when you have tried a new exercise, immediately going to places in your current repertoire where you feel it might be applicable and trying it on for size. Just make sure that you are really bringing something specifically new to your playing. Given these guidelines, I hope you can find your own way. You'll eventually, by trial and error, figure out which works best for your personal learning style: one, the other, or both! Try to create a balance. Immerse yourself in your musical expression without getting so lost in it that you lose touch entirely with "how" you are doing it. But don't get lost in the "how" that you lose touch entirely with the musical effect either. Thanks for bringing this important point into the discussion! Sincerely, AFF

Thank you for your reply. Luckily I don't have a repertoire yet, I've just started playing. I've been a composer and guitarist for 20+ years and have had a passionate love affair with the piano that has been unrequited. ...until now. So, I'm learning Rachmaninoff's C# minor prelude as my first piece and was trying to figure out which of the techniques are right to integrate into it first. I've learned most of the middle triplet figure and am getting through the broken chord-stabs (where it feels like a 3:2 thing - where each hand is taking a group of partials from the triplet to make a complete thing) and figured this would be a good place to start using the 'thrown hand' approach. I am noticing that I don't have to put tension in my hand if I keep the arch and I think I'm getting a very basic understanding of how this should work. I'm also noticing that my thumb wants to retract up under the 'wing of the dragon' and I'm consciously trying to allow the thumb to drop while I play these chords. Another thought is that I should try the grasping motion on these chords since they're moving by so fast (even though I'm shedding them very slowly (and at times with a metronome) to ensure that I have the basics down). What are your thoughts on this? Over the years I've put in at least 4 hours a day practicing and/or composing and I'm now doing the same thing with piano (broken up throughout the day so my hands don't fatigue while I learn the right way). I've watched/listened to the dvd approx. 10 times since I got it the other day and love it. Great work!

I am very impressed with your diligence, waittago! Practice those broken chord triplets using the overholding technique from the Legato chapter first. Then do them using the "Tai Chi Walking at the Piano" legato exercise - the same thing but with 2-key overholding instead of multiple-key overholding. Do this SLOWLY at first and only gradually build up speed. All this should be seen as preparation for using the exercises you mention. If you start with these, you ensure maintaining a musical connection to this passage while you continue to do whatever you need to in terms of developing your hand. By the way, remember that there will come a time when the overholding exercise, although it is extremely useful, outlives that usefulness and becomes a liability. In other words, when you have acquired and integrated the feeling of a true legato in your hand, then overholding will impede your fingers from moving as freely and as actively as they need to - thus you will now have to reduce it to the minimum. Good luck! Best wishes, AFF

Thanks for the tip, I'll start on that today. Here is the composition I'm working on right now. There are some issues with it due to it's 'unfinished' state. There are playability issues that I'll address after I've gotten the bigger picture in place. Please excuse the sound quality, it's being played back through Sibelius. Thanks again.

Hi mrb, i like your composition very much.It 's very complex, it must have taken you a lot of time to compose it. Keep on with good work!!!

Thanks, man...

I agree with milos, GOOD WORK MAN!!! I would just add one thing.If you could make a bit more contrast within the piece.It kinda sounds all the same. Just a suggestion!What do you think?

I think I agree (if you have in mind the things I do about it). There are several things that need to be done to it but I haven't been able to get back in a deal with them due to work (I'm a software developer which means I'm 'owned' ).

I understand.Feel free to post more music of yours.If you need help with it, i would be glad to help you.